Will Trump Move the Needle For U.S. Airports?

There hasn't been much style or substance to the bickering that is the 2016 Presidential election. Decorum, manners, rudeness, sexism. It's all been on display and for those looking to make an informed decision among two seemingly untrustable candidates, watching the debates has been an exercise in futility.

There have been moments that have helped me understand why Donald Trump has gone from reality TV train wreck to Oompa Loompa-hued party nominee. Yes, he's tapped into a frustration with the current political landscape. Yes, he's emboldened and unified vast quantities of fringe pockets of populace into a large-scale movement. But beyond that, he has had moments of shocking clarity -- a billionaire connecting on middle-class concerns that politicians have either been too scared or too lazy to tackle.

No matter how you feel on the issue, immigration is one of those issues. Trump entered my wheelhouse in the first Presidential debate when he gave time to discussing the crumbling U.S. travel infrastructure and our pathetic place in the world landscape.

Those who travel through U.S. airports know that when Trump compares some of our airports to Third World countries (borrowing a Joe Biden reference to New York City’s LaGuardia Airport), though he may be exaggerating, he’s really not that far off.

Places like South Korea, Beijing, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha have recognized that investing in world-class airports is the key to attracting travelers outside their inner-country commuter sphere. They have reimagined the role of the airport itself, understanding that is merely a transportation component to an entertainment hub.

This kind of investment and creativity has eluded our country’s air travel system for decades. Where we were once the leaders in celebrating the magic of flight, we are now woefully underserving a traveling economy that has been conditioned to accept sub-par customer service and shrinking personal space as the cost of doing air travel.

Airlines are equally part of the problem. It’s an issue we’ve hit upon consistently, none better than how my colleague David Cogswell detailed the decline in the airlines' relationship with the consumer. But the structures in which we board these flying sardine cans have become equally oppressive.

Yes, there are signs of hope trickling through the faucet – United’s stellar Newark terminal redesign one of the latest examples. But that in and of itself is the problem. The examples are so few and far between in municipalities creating modern-day marvels in the airport space.

I’m a sports nut, but to see the obscene amount of public dollars being siphoned away by sports franchises to build billion-dollar shrines that serve such a narrow part of the area’s population, it’s disgusting. This should not be an either-or discussion – there should be enough infrastructure funds to go around for both the airports and the stadiums. But given the choice, airports should have been addressed first in just about every case study over the last two decades.

Just how bad is the problem? Where do we begin with solutions? Which countries can we model in an apples-to-apples comparison on how to get an airport project finished?

These are questions we plan to tackle over the coming months at TravelPulse. We’ll establish a base for discussion in examining just where our national airport system is at, then we’ll start to look at solutions and whether the U.S. even has the high rollers in place to get large-scale airport projects off the ground, let alone to the finish line. Those who have endured endless construction at airports like JFK know what we’re talking about.

We won’t be cynics here. We want to believe that the U.S. is capable of creativity and bigger picture thinking that has made these far-flung countries the envy of the world.

Trump says that he would tackle these issues. Unfortunately, it looks as if he’s shot his campaign in the foot too often to have a fighting chance of winning in November. There have been voices, such as U.S. Travel’s Roger Dow, banging this drum loudly, speaking mostly to the travel industry choir. The mere fact that Trump has brought the issues to a larger audience during this election cycle is a good thing.

Now is the time to capitalize on this debate. Hopefully, we can play a small part in creating worthwhile ideas to move the concept of U.S. airport innovation from dream to reality.

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